FLOC will work with the federal Office of Labor-Management Standards to set a historical precedent on how the federal government can govern migrant and foreign workers in union elections.
The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) and FLOC have entered a voluntary compliance agreement (VCA) to determine how the federal government can govern migrant and foreign workers in union elections. The details of the agreement are as follows:
FLOC will hold a re-run of its September 2022 election and new nominations and elections are to be held sometime before September 30, 2024. Under the express terms of the VCA, “FLOC enter[ed] into this voluntary compliance agreement solely to avoid time consuming and costly litigation which would be detrimental to the best interests of FLOC’s membership.”
Under the VCA, OLMS agreed to “consider and give appropriate weight to processes, methods, and timing suggested by FLOC that minimize financial costs on the union and barriers to participation for FLOC’s members who are itinerant foreign agricultural workers”.
The VCA also provides that “[b]y entering into this voluntary compliance agreement, FLOC does not admit that any aspects of its 2022 election process culminating in the September 10, 2022 election were out of compliance with Title IV of the LMRDA [the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959]; neither does FLOC admit that any impropriety occurred regarding the conduct of its 2022 election and FLOC expressly denies that the 2022 election process was out of compliance with Title IV of the LMRDA.”
FLOC further maintains, and the VCA includes, FLOC’s “position that: (i) the generally accepted principles and methods of conducting union officer elections under Title IV of the LMRDA cannot easily be applied to FLOC given its representation of agricultural employees and foreign workers; and (ii) the LMRDA and its implementing regulations were promulgated with National Labor Relations Act governed labor organizations in mind.” During the process leading to the VCA, FLOC specifically pointed out to OLMS that agricultural workers are excluded from the National Labor Relations Act.
In the VCA, FLOC “specifically reserves the right, to contest whether it is subject to the LMRDA and whether the Department of Labor, the Secretary of Labor and/or OLMS have jurisdiction over FLOC.”
As noted above, FLOC entered into the VCA solely to avoid time consuming and costly litigation which would be detrimental to the best interests of FLOC’s membership.
FLOC welcomes the opportunity to set new precedents and transcend erroneous notions of compliance and non-compliance. Once settled, we look forward to putting all of our efforts and resources back into what we do best, fighting for justice and ending exploitation in the fields.
Hasta La Victoria!